[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 563-564]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                ANNIVERSARY OF CITIZENS UNITED DECISION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, a flood of dark money has engulfed the 
American political system and perverted our democracy. The voices of 
ordinary citizens are being drowned out by billionaires seeking to rig 
the system in their favor.
  Americans should know that Democrats are fighting to restore their 
voice, which is being overshadowed by the billions of dollars being 
spent to push the Republican Presidential nominees, and on every level 
of the government, this dark money is there drowning out the voices of 
average Americans. Over here, we stand united in our commitment to 
advance the interest of the middle-class and working families. It is 
important to remember how we got to this point.
  Yesterday I saw that the junior Senator from Florida and the former 
Governor of Florida have spent about $150 million so far running for 
President. One of them is at 10 percent in the national polls and the 
other is at 6 percent. But they have the money to slosh around and 
spend.
  We got here because 6 years ago today, the Supreme Court of our great 
country erased a century of sound government regulations that protect 
the fairness and integrity of elections. It was determined during the 
Republican reign of Teddy Roosevelt that there was too much corporate 
money in American politics, and so under his leadership, it was 
eliminated. But the Supreme Court changed that in a very narrow 
decision of 5 to 4.
  The disastrous Citizens United ruling opened the floodgates for these 
shadowy billionaires to influence our elections. Most of the spending 
is done in secret by special interest shell groups who refuse to 
disclose their donors to the American people. These billionaire donors 
stop at nothing to buy a government that favors them and their special 
interests.
  There are two brothers who I believe are determined to buy America, 
and we will find out come election time. Maybe they have been able to 
do that. Charles and David Koch are shrewd business people. Their 
wealth is nearly unmatched anyplace in the world. They have amassed a 
fortune from inherited wealth that they have magnified that has come 
from oil, chemicals, and a lot of different places. They originally 
inherited this from their dad and built it into a multinational 
corporation. No one really knows their net worth, but some say it is 
$100 billion, $150 billion. No one really knows. They have become two 
of the wealthiest men in the entire world.
  They seek more wealth, but that is not all they seek. A new book by 
Jane Myer--a dignified and renowned author and journalist--she reports 
in her book that immediately after the election of President Obama, the 
Koch brothers wanted to double down on what they had done before. They 
had been working on this for a while. They didn't like this man, Barack 
Obama, being President of the United States, so they gathered like-
minded billionaires--it is in her book--and plotted to spend however 
much money it would take to get rid of him for a new term and basically 
undermine our democracy. You can't make up a story like this. These are 
the facts.
  Capitalizing on the Citizens United decision, the Koch brothers have 
poured over $1 billion into our political system to create a country 
that protects the wealthiest one-half of 1 percent. The America they 
envision is drastically different from the vision most Americans have 
for our country.
  I have a list of some of the things they have advocated for decades. 
It used to be just the fringe, but now we have people running for 
President who agree with him. They want to abolish Social Security, 
eliminate minimum wage laws, dismantle Medicare as we know it, 
dismantle our public education system, dismantle protections for clean 
air and water, create tax breaks for themselves, and they have done a 
pretty good job of that. They are prepared to use their enormous wealth 
to accomplish these goals. They really put their money where their 
mouth is. They spend it because they have it to spend. They have 
pledged to spend about $1 billion this cycle, not counting all the 
money they have spent in years past.
  They have been involved in years past to make sure the John Birch 
Society had a place in our society--the libertarians. They were 
libertarians for a while.
  The Supreme Court has paved the way for greedy robber barons--robber 
barons like the Koch brothers--to create a government that works for 
the richest of the rich.
  Democracy demands that every American has an equal opportunity to 
have his or her voice heard. It should not be dependent upon how much 
money one has.
  I am sorry to say our Supreme Court has determined that your voice is 
going to be much louder if you have a lot of money. A democratic system 
should give every American a fair shot, but every time we have tried to 
make an effort to fix our broken finance system, the Republicans have 
said no.
  We had a DISCLOSE Act. We brought it before this body. It would have 
passed the House at that time. There were 59 Democrats. We needed one 
Republican--one Republican--to make it more apparent so that the 
American people could see where this money was coming from. Not one 
Republican would join with us.
  Now, I came to the House of Representatives with the senior Senator 
from Arizona. I admire him. He is an American hero, despite what Donald 
Trump says. He proved himself in battle and in the prison system set up 
in Vietnam. I admire John McCain. I can remember him working with Russ 
Feingold, the Senator from Wisconsin, and they passed the McCain-
Feingold legislation. It became the law of this country. It was a 
really good, strong step forward. Citizens United wiped that out.
  My friend, the senior Senator from Arizona, had an opportunity to 
help this bad financial system the Supreme Court has put forward, and 
he didn't step forward. He decided to take a pass on it. I am very 
disappointed. I have never forgotten what he didn't do or what he could 
have done with one vote. We only needed one vote. We had 59, and we 
only needed 1 more.
  Rather than secret political spending, we should have immediate 
disclosure--some disclosure. Rather than corporations buying influence, 
we should restore laws that limit the power of special interests. 
Rather than empowering the wealthy, we should encourage small 
contributions.
  We must make clear once and for all that the United States of America 
is not for sale.

[[Page 564]]

  We criticized and complained about the Soviet Union and how it was. 
We were so happy when the Soviet Union fell and Russia became a 
``democracy.'' Now people say that Russia is an oligarchy. What is an 
oligarchy? An oligarchy is a country run by a person who is controlled 
by wealth--the wealth of individuals and families. That is what we have 
in Russia, and that is what we are going to have in America if this is 
allowed to continue.
  The Koch brothers and a few other billionaires will be in concert 
with--we see this line of characters running for President on the 
Republican ticket--it will be with them. It will be an oligarchy first 
class. It will match what is going on in Russia today.
  We must make clear that the United States is not for sale. The 
Citizens United decision that we celebrate in a very adverse way today 
on its anniversary is bad for the country, and I hope the Supreme Court 
understands how bad it is for the country. It is one of the worst 
decisions in the history of the Supreme Court, if not the worst.
  Mr. President, would the Chair announce the business of the day.

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